1. The list in brief ↴
2. Best overall
3. Best budget
4. Best under $2,000
5. Best performance
6. Best battery life
7. Best handheld
8. Benchmark comparisons
9. Recently reviewed
10. Find your perfect gaming laptop
11. FAQs
12. How we test
13. Why trust Laptop Mag
The best gaming laptop, the rig of your dreams, is right on this page. Whether you're trying to stay within a budget, prioritize battery life, or want the best of the best, you'll find what you need here. Why is that? Well, we've reviewed dozens of the best gaming laptops and have the numbers to back up their scores.
Gaming laptops run through an even more rigorous set of benchmarks for us. We do our usual testing for display color, battery life, and overall performance. However, the most important and distinct benchmarks for gaming laptops are, of course, the games. And also heat, where gaming notebooks can range between cool and scalding. Laptop Mag reviews more than 100 laptops per year, so we have the numbers to offer the appropriate context.
I jump into these gaming laptops to game, but that's not it. I watch films, write articles, and begrudgingly use the webcam. I am thorough in my hands-on testing to tell you everything right and wrong with the laptop.
The best gaming laptops we've reviewed include the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9), which is an all-around champ when it comes to premium features and performance. Then there are truly shocking gaming laptops like the Asus TUF Gaming A14, which survived over 10 hours on the Laptop Mag battery test.
Whatever your needs, you'll find a gaming laptop for you on this list. Here are the best gaming laptops right now.
The Quick List
Best overall
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i strikes a balance between intense RTX 4080 graphics performance and relative affordability. And with few flaws, it makes for the best gaming laptop.
Best budget
The Dell G16 (7630) is an absolute stunner with its premium features, like a colorful display and mechanical keyboard, priced at under $1,000. This is the best for the least.
Best under $2,000
Looking for an RTX 4070 gaming laptop with premium features under $2,000? Then we highly recommend the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9, which offers a powerful overall graphics performance.
Best performance
The MSI Titan 18 HX is stacked. It has a beautiful display and a mechanical keyboard, as well as a Core i9 CPU and Nvidia 4090 GPU. It’s a beast of a machine that conquered everything we put in front of it.
Best battery life
The Asus TUF Gaming A14 rocks the gaming industry with the longest lasting battery life we've tested in years. All that battery life does not come at the expense of power thanks to its RTX 4060 GPU.
Best handheld
No, the Asus ROG Ally X is not technically a gaming laptop, but it's not a device you should ignore. This is the only device you can reliably game with on the go. And it even supports Windows 11.
Rami has reviewed and tested dozens of gaming laptops for more than six years. He gets to game on a new machine every time one comes in for review, so he's an expert on what works and what doesn't for any budget. Currently, he's using the HP Omen 16 with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, which has been very reliable thus far (and got a 4 out of 5-star review). Rami knows that budget shouldn't compromise on quality and that you deserve the most for your coin. Extensive testing and hands-on training have taught Rami which gaming laptops are the best for every budget.
The best gaming laptops you can buy today
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Each gaming laptop on this list has been painstakingly tested and received the hands-on time necessary to review it. You can rest assured that any choice you make will equip you to run the games you love the most.
Best overall
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) is an outstanding example of what it means to be a gaming laptop. It hits all the marks, including performance, display, keyboard, and audio. Want the best? This is it.
✔️ You want your gaming laptop to meet the golden standards: Not only does this offer excellent performance but also a vivid display, clicky keyboard, and loud audio. These are what make a good gaming laptop.
✔️ You want the best under $2,500: Listen, $2,500 isn't cheap. However, there are $5K gaming laptops out there. If you want the best overall gaming experience in a laptop, this is a great price to get it.
✖️ You want a 4K or OLED display: While this supports a vivid and bright display, the specs themselves are somewhat underwhelming. Without 4K or OLED, it's not as sharp or as bold as it could've been, respectively.
✖️ You want to travel with it: The two biggest cons that we hit this laptop with is its heavy weight and short battery life, making this a tough travel item.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) ushers in a new age of gaming laptops with its powerful Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM. That performance isn't the only head-turning feature. Its vivid display, loud audio, and satisfying keyboard wrap this beauty in a bow. And that bow sports a price tag under $2,500 (on sale).
Madeline Ricchiuto said, "The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a gamer’s gaming laptop," in our review of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9).
Let's start with performance. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i averaged 105 frames per second on the Far Cry 6 (Ultra, 1080p) benchmark, keeping pace with the MSI Vector 16 HX (98 fps) while dominating the Alienware X16 R2 (88 fps) and its last-gen model (97 fps). The Legion and its competitors landed in similar positions on the Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium, 1080p) benchmark, with the Pro 7i at 96 fps, the Vector 16 at 104 fps, the X16 R2 at 90 fps, and the Gen 8 at 69 fps.
Then there's the display. A gorgeous 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz panel clocking in 108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 456 nits of brightness. Translation: it's vivid and vibrant enough to immerse you in your favorite games.
With widely spaced keys and an actuation force that feels crisp and springy, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's keyboard puts off the notion that you need a mechanical keyboard to get serious gaming done.
Same goes for sporting a gaming headset (outside of playing games online, of course), as the Legion Pro 7i supports the Harman Super Linear Speaker System. That equates to two woofers and two tweeters, which are supported by a smart amp. If you want big, immersive sound, this is it.
Unfortunately, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is on the heavier side for a gaming laptop. And the battery life falls short, at 4 hours and 29 minutes. Even for a gaming laptop, we expect more.
But overall, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the champ.
Read our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) review.
Best budget
Dell G16 (7630) is the only budget gaming laptop I've seen support a vivid display and a mechanical keyboard packaged under $1,000. On a budget? Buy this.
✔️ You want competitive performance on a budget: This sub-$1,000 doesn't stick you with a measly RTX 4050. You get the best on a budget: an RTX 4060 GPU, which can produce above 60 fps in select AAA games on Ultra settings.
✔️ You want premium features: I fell in love with the Dell G16 (7630) because of its vivid display and mechanical keyboard, which you couldn't find in any other budget gaming laptop.
✖️ You want strong speakers: Unfortunately, not everything gets a premium spin. These speakers are hollow and hard to listen to.
✖️ You want a comfortable touchpad experience: This touchpad is so small is might as well not exist (that's a joke, Dell). No but seriously, it's hard to use.
I haven't been able to champion a budget gaming laptop in quite sometime. At the risk of sounding like an old man, they just don't make them the way they used to... until now. Let me introduce you to the Dell G16 (7630), a sub-$1,000 gaming laptop with $2K+ gaming features.
Rami Tabari said, "If I wanted to jump into battle with my friends on a budget, this is the gaming laptop I’d take with me," in our review of the Dell G16 (7630).
The Dell G16 (7630)'s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GPU puts in the strong effort you'd expect. Navigating Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, 1080p) was a breeze, with the G16 averaging 33 fps. That surpassed the Asus TUF Gaming A14 (30 fps) and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (32 fps) while just coming short of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (37 fps), which is natural due to its RTX 4070 GPU. The G16 then took a leap of faith in Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ultra, 1080p) at 88 fps, matching the Helios Neo 16 (88 fps) and sliding past the TUF Gaming A14 (87 fps), but lagged behind the Legion Pro 5 (103 fps).
One of the premium features I'd mentioned is its 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display. First, its specs are high-quality but so are its benchmarks. It covered a stunning 114% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. While it is dim, at 310 nits of brightness, that's a problem solved by turning off the lights (I apologize to your eyes in advance).
Then there's the keyboard. There are $2K+ premium gaming laptops that don't even support a keyboard this good, our best overall gaming laptop included. The Dell G16 (7630) features a Cherry MX tactile mechanical keyboard. You won't find these punchy, clicky keys in any other budget gaming laptop.
The battery life is even decent. The Dell G16 (7630) clocked in 5 hours and 4 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. It's no TUF Gaming A14 (10:04), but its battery life outlasts the average budget gaming laptop by a whole hour.
This budget gaming laptop does come with caveats. There's the hollow, harsh speakers, which basically force you to buy a discrete gaming headset. Then there's the tiny touchpad. I mean, any gamer was going to use a gaming mouse anyway, but it makes general use frustrating.
Despite that, I wouldn't buy any other gaming laptop under $1,000.
See our full Dell G16 (7630) review.
Best under $2,000
Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 is a force for its price. Yes, it's a bit pricey for an RTX 4070 gaming laptop, but its display, keyboard, and thermals more than make up for it.
✔️ You want a strong all-around mid-range gaming laptop: For under $2,000, you're getting great RTX 4070 performance comboed with a strong keyboard and gorgeous display.
✔️ You use put your laptop in your lap: Despite the name, we usually advise against putting a laptop, especially a gaming laptop, in your lap. However, the Legion 7i offers reliable thermals.
✖️ You want rich speakers: Despite edging on premium, the Legion 7i doesn't offer quality speakers.
✖️ You need a long-lasting battery: If you're using this for anything other than gaming, forget about it. You won't get far on 3 hours of battery life.
Looking for that extra bump from budget? The Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB is the answer. It not only supports epic performance but also a bright display and a pleasant keyboard and touchpad experience. That's packed into a chassis with cool thermals (this is a laptop you can actually put in your lap).
Ready to watch an RTX 4070 do some work? Yee-hawing through the wild west in Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium, 1080), the Legion 7i scored 68 fps, defeating the Alienware m16 R2 and the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (65 fps). The Legion 7i spread chaos across Pandora in Borderlands 3 (Badass, 1080p) at 90 fps, defeating the Helios Neo 16 (84 fps) and falling shortly behind the m16 R2 (102 fps).
Jumping in with a 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display, the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 covered 81.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 479 nits of brightness. That's some decent color and a hell of a lot of brightness. You'll have the best chance of survival when suffering poor lighting conditions in video games.
The edge-to-edge keyboard is bouncy. And thanks to the Legion's well-spaced keys on a large deck, typing is an overall pleasant experience. The cherry on top is the glass touchpad which makes for silky smooth inputs.
It's no secret that gaming laptops get hot as the nine layers of hell (yes, this is a D&D reference). However, the Legion 7i's secret lies in its thermals. The underside topped off at 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That's impressive for a gaming notebook.
But not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Despite the sub-$2K price, you're stuck with mediocre speakers. And then there's the short battery life, coming in at a measly 3 hours and 1 minute. Then there's the chassis; I love the design, but small scratches can easily strip the paint.
Despite that, the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 is a beast of a gaming laptop that deserves your consideration within its price range.
See our full Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 review.
Best performance
MSI Titan 18 HX doesn't bank on its RTX 4090 to do everything. It proves itself with a stunning Mini LED display and a mechanical keyboard.
✔️ You want the most powerful gaming laptop: Nothing can defeat the MSI Titan 18 HX. With an RTX 4090 and 128GB of RAM, this is a monster's monster.
✔️ You want a display and keyboard to reflect performance: With a Mini-LED display and a mechanical keyboard, you are getting a proper desktop experience in this titan of a gaming laptop.
✖️ You can't dump $5,000: Yeah, this is stupid expensive. Down payment for a car type of expensive.
✖️ You need to be on the go: Just... no. This thing is close to 10 pounds and survives under 3 hours in battery life. Keep this at a desk.
MSI has always taken a kitchen sink approach to its flagship gaming laptops, and we're not complaining when you get something as powerful as the MSI Titan 18 HX. This is an exorbitantly priced system, even for a top-tier gaming laptop. But for that arm, leg, and vestigial organ you're contemplating selling, you get an absolute powerhouse that shrugs off almost everything you can throw at it.
The Titan's Nvidia RTX 4090 with 16GB of VRAM cut through frame rates like a hot knife through butter, smoothly and immensely satisfying. It crushed every one of its competitors in the battle for frame rates, even its predecessor. On the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla benchmark, the Titan nailed 169 fps, dominating the pack average (134 fps). Even with the same RTX 4090 GPUs, the previous Titan (124 fps) and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) (154 fps) were no match.
The notebook breezed through our overall performance tests with its Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and 128GB of RAM. Its dual SSDs in RAID 0 configuration posted a blistering 2,664.34 megabytes per second in our file transfer test.
The thorn in this mighty beast's paw is the 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. But if you're looking for the most powerful gaming laptop on the block, you'd be hard-pressed to find one better. If the MSI Titan 18 HX (2024) isn't your speed but you still want an MSI notebook, check out our best MSI laptops page.
Are you ready to hear about this monster's gorgeous 18-inch, 3,840 x 2,400 Mini LED display clocked in at 120Hz? This baby has a whopping 559 nits of brightness and covers 112.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. You will experience a level of immersion to rival an OLED display (and I don't say that lightly).
There's not much we can do about the price or battery life, but if you stay tuned to our laptop deals, you might see the MSI Titan for a discounted holiday price.
See our full MSI Titan 18 HX (2024) review.
Best battery life
Asus TUF Gaming A14 doesn't sacrifice its performance for the sake of battery life. It's a killer with its RTX 4060 GPU and bright display.
✔️ You want an affordable gaming laptop: This falls somewhere between budget and high mid-range. At under $1,500, it offers excellent features that premium gaming laptops don't have.
✔️ You want the longest battery life: You won't find a longer lasting gaming laptop than this. You can get work or school done within 10 hours and then plug-in this laptop at the end of the day to game.
✖️ You need excellent performance: An RTX 4060 can run AAA games without issue. Despite that, you won't get your fps into the triple digits at max settings.
✖️ You want a smooth touchpad experience: Yes, it's super portable, but if you're on the go you're going to use a touchpad. Unfortunately, this is too sluggish for my liking.
I haven't seen a gaming laptop with double-digit battery life in years. The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is rocking an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and it still hit 10 hours and 4 minutes on our battery test. The average time for gaming laptops is still around 5 hours, much to my own disappointment. However, with the TUF Gaming A14, you can go about your day normally until you get a break to plug in and game.
Claire Tabari said, "The TUF Gaming A14 is a sturdy, lightweight miracle designed to withstand accidental drops and extreme conditions," in our review of the Asus TUF Gaming A14.
Loaded up with AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 tore through our benchmarks. It clocked in most titles at or over 60 fps, like Assassin's Creed Mirage (87 fps), Far Cry 6 (77 fps), and Red Dead Redemption 2 (61 fps). And despite how chunky Cyberpunk 2077 can be, it managed 30 fps, achieving the minimum for playability.
Again, shockingly, its display didn't hinder its battery life. Its 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, IPS, 165Hz panel performed quite well for the price, covering 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaging 411 nits of brightness. (I don't want to hear excuses again, manufacturers). With an RTX 4060 GPU, you can still experience immersive play thanks to this stunning display.
All that battery and performance is packed into a light and thin chassis. I'd argue the numbers were wrong if we didn't review it ourselves. The TUF A14 measures 3.2 pounds and 12.24 x 8.94 x 0.67~0.78 inches. Between its size and battery life, it makes for the optimal gaming laptop to be used on the go.
Despite that, we recommend using a gaming mouse most of the time, as the touchpad experience was less than ideal. It's The sluggish, offering too much resistance when in use.
Regardless, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 the champion of battery life in gaming laptops. We even included it in our laptops with best battery life ranking.
See our full Asus TUF Gaming A14 review.
Best handheld gaming PC
Asus ROG Ally X is a Switch-like device that jumps into the PC gaming pool. It's one of the most unique gaming devices right now, and it's even more affordable than a traditional gaming notebook.
✔️ You love the Switch experience: The Nintendo Switch caused a ripple effect in the gaming industry, and now devices like the Ally X exist. So if you're a fan, this is perfect for you.
✔️ You are always on the go: If you like to game on the go, get the Asus ROG Ally X. You get 2 hours and 15 minutes of playtime before needing a charger.
✖️ You are a keyboard and mouse player: Sorry folks, this isn't really a keyboard and mouse kind of device. Only controller gamers should consider this.
✖️ You want powerful gaming performance: While we love the portability of the Asus ROG Ally X, it's not going to run AAA games on the highest settings.
You don't need a gaming laptop or desktop to game on PC. You also don't need to break the bank to break into PC gaming. That's right, the Asus ROG Ally X is here to answer your call. Now, this is technically a reimagining of the Asus ROG Ally that launched last year. But it's been so improved that you should seriously consider this as an alternative or even an additive.
Claire Tabari said, "With 24GB of RAM, an 80Wh battery, 1TB of SSD storage, and ergonomic enhancements that bring new levels of comfort, we’d recommend the Ally X to anyone who has yet to invest in a handheld gaming console," in our review of the Asus ROG Ally X.
Asus took some time to figure out its relationship with the Ally, and that's when we got the Ally X. From its bumpers and triggers to its joysticks and grips, the ergonomics have taken a massive step forward. Asus didn't stop there, it also found a way to pump the Ally with more battery life. While the original Ally lasted 1 hour and 43 minutes, the Ally X offers 2 hours and 15 minutes. That additional 30 minutes can make the world's difference for folks commuting.
Its wonderful new design is graced with a gorgeous display. And I do mean gorgeous. It looks better than most gaming laptops, outside of its size. The 7-inch, 1920 x 1080 display clocks in 523 nits of brightness, which is brighter than some premium laptops. And with a 120Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync with a 7-millisecond response time, you'll get a smooth gaming experience.
Let's talk about performance. You're not going to get the best. In fact, you're arguably getting the worst. But the worst isn't as bad as you expect. We played Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree at maximum graphics with ray tracing on and the Ally X managed 27 to 35 frames per second. It's likely that if you play on low settings, you could get closer to 60 fps in select AAA games.
One of the benefits of a handheld gaming device is its portability. At 1.5 pounds and 11 x 4.4 x 1~1.5 inches, it is easily the most portable device on this page. You can even throw this thing in a purse.
It is a bit pricey for what it is, at $800. However, that technically makes it the cheapest gaming device on this page. I don't recommend buying it outright, however. You'll likely see deals shave off at least $50 or more.
Overall, the Asus ROG Ally X is one of the best takes on a gaming device we've seen. And we're excited to see where the industry goes with it. But right now, this is the best you can get.
See our full Asus ROG Ally X review.
Benchmark comparisons
Click to view chart data in table format
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Lenovo Legion Pro 7i | Dell G16 (7630) | Lenovo Legion 7i | MSI Titan 18 HX | Asus TUF Gaming A14 | Asus ROG Ally X |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 (Higher is better) | 17,329 | 11,209 | 17,261 | 16,501 | 11,330 | 11255 |
| Handbrake time (Lower is better, (MM.SS)) | 3.11 | 4.19 | 3.08 | 2.33 | 4.21 | 6.45 |
| Far Cry 6 benchmark (Higher is better) | 105 | 85 | 96 | 120 | 77 | 31 |
| Assassin's Creed Mirage benchmark (Higher is better) | 123 | 88 | 98 | 144 | 87 | 22 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark (Higher is better) | 96 | 64 | 68 | 135 | 61 | 17 |
| Helldivers 2 benchmark (Higher is better) | Row 5 - Cell 1 | Row 5 - Cell 2 | Row 5 - Cell 3 | Row 5 - Cell 4 | Row 5 - Cell 5 | 44 |
| Doom Eternal (Higher is better) | Row 6 - Cell 1 | Row 6 - Cell 2 | Row 6 - Cell 3 | Row 6 - Cell 4 | Row 6 - Cell 5 | 60 |
| SSD Transfer rate (Higher is better, MBps) | 2,025 | 1,719 | 1,705 | 2,664 | 1,339 | 1346 |
| Battery life - Web surfing (HH.MM) | 4.29 | 5.04 | 3.01 | 2.4 | 10.04 | 8.19 |
| Battery life - Gaming (HH.MM) | 0.51 | 1.06 | 0.47 | 1.36 | 1.06 | 3.04 |
| DCI-P3 Color Gamut (Higher is better) | 108.7 | 114 | 81.6 | 112.4 | 82 | 79.8 |
| Display Brightness (Nits) | 456 | 310 | 479 | 559 | 411 | 523 |
| Hottest temperature (Lower is better, 95 degree comfort threshold) | 106.7 | 107 | 101 | 125.8 | 104 | 95 |
Recently reviewed
We deliberately make our best gaming laptops list short so you don't suffer from indecision. However, if you like having all of your options open to you, we have quite a few gaming laptops that we've also tested. Get ready to go swimming.
These can range from excellent to subpar, but each has its own pros and cons. Here's our list.
How to find the right gaming laptop
When shopping for a gaming laptop, there's a lot to consider. We wrote a detailed piece about the nine most important factors for buying a gaming laptop. But to simplify the process of choosing a system, here are seven key points to keep in mind.
Budget: How we split cost categories
Money is getting tight. There was a time when you could find a good gaming laptop for under $1,000, but those are few and far between. If you're looking for a quality gaming laptop and are trying to budget yourself, try aiming for at least $1,300. If you have a larger budget, you can push for a more powerful mainstream gaming laptop, which is often priced between $1,500 and $2,000.
Premium systems typically cost more than $2,000 and come stacked with many high-powered goodies such as high-powered specs and tricked-out software. Remember that the bigger the GPU, the bigger the gaps in price points. So, list the games you play and start checking the PC requirements. Almost any gaming laptop with a 40-series GPU can play an indie game, but if you're dabbling in AAA titles, you have to decide which settings you're comfortable playing on.
Screen Size: 14 and 16 inches are the go-to
You'll rarely find a 13-inch gaming laptop nowadays, and 15.6-inch laptops have taken a backseat to the hyped-up 14-inch and 16-inch laptops. Those 17-inch gaming laptops also feel like a thing of the past. Well, now we have 18-inch gaming laptops. Yeah, they're beasts, but what all these sizes have in common is that they're getting more compact.
If you're looking for a gaming laptop to take on the go and even use as a school or work laptop, 14-inch gaming laptops are the perfect fit. Smaller gaming laptops also tend to have longer battery life as well. 16-inch gaming laptops are more manageable in size than 17 or 18-inch machines without sacrificing any power. But if you're looking for true desktop replacements, you'll probably want to go all out with a larger size. They tend to be the most powerful but require you to always be near an outlet.
Screen Resolution: 1080p (high refresh rates), 4K (detail), 1440p (sweet spot)
Regarding gaming laptop displays, you want to balance frame rates and aesthetics. And if you're planning to get a truly mobile system, battery life also deserves consideration. A 1080p resolution is the bare minimum you'll find, which isn't great unless you're trading resolution for a high refresh rate. Panel makers now serve up screens with a 360Hz refresh rate and a three-millisecond response time. But I don't count out 4K screens yet, as many laptops with 4K displays are clocked at 120Hz. Remember that laptops with lower resolutions tend to have longer battery life overall.
Are you looking for a sweet spot between the two? More and more gaming laptops are shipping with 1440p displays, which provide high refresh rates and a sharp panel. This strikes an outstanding balance between the two without charging a premium price.
Refresh rate: 120Hz is a minimum
Depending on the kind of games you're playing, particularly first-person shooters and MOBAs, you'll take anything that enhances accuracy. Surprisingly, the higher a display's refresh rate is, the more accurate your shot becomes. We've experienced this firsthand during many demos. At this point, 60Hz is unacceptable for a gaming laptop, so we recommend investing in a panel with at least a 120Hz refresh rate.
You also have to balance graphics performance with resolution and refresh rate. Sometimes, a laptop is paired with a low-performing GPU and a high resolution and refresh rate. The math doesn't add up. If your gaming laptop cannot take advantage of the sharp screen or high refresh rate, then what's the point? Make sure you check the benchmarks.
Intel or AMD?
A couple of years ago, the answer to this question would have been undoubtedly Intel. However, AMD has made a furious comeback with its new Ryzen CPUs, which deliver outstanding overall performance and battery life. Thanks to the new Ryzen chips architecture, they're super power efficient without sacrificing productivity. The Ryzen 8000 series CPUs have consistently impressed with its performance versus battery life.
Not to be outdone, Intel's 14th-generation chips are nothing to sneeze at. Laptop manufacturers have started rolling out systems with Intel's Core Ultra chips. These chips are extremely powerful and are catching up to AMD with their battery life game.
Gaming laptops have been balancing performance with battery life, and it's changing the use case for these rigs for the better.
Battery Life: At least 5.5 hours
Unless it's plugged in, gaming laptop battery life tends to be very short, especially when gaming. However, the battery life of gaming laptops has increased over the years. So much so that anything under 5.5 hours is considered below average. We've reviewed several gaming laptops that last a whole workday and jump into the double digits. With results like that, we expect gaming laptops will match their non-gaming counterparts sooner rather than later. Our most recent power-efficient gaming laptop is right on this page (Razer Blade 14), lasting over 8 hours.
Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 16GB are a minimum
You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components. If you want decent mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p screen.
FAQs
Do I really need an RTX 4070 / RTX 4080 / RTX 4090?
That entirely depends on what you're looking to get out of a gaming laptop. If you just want to game, period, then you can get away with an RTX 4060 gaming laptop. It's a powerful GPU, and thanks to its 8GB of VRAM, there's no AAA game you cannot play on the lowest settings. But as you may have seen with our testing, an RTX 4060 can get you 60+ fps in select AAA games on Ultra, 1080p settings.
Now, the good and bad of gaming laptops nowadays is that they don't often feature 1080p displays anymore, so you're never really making full use of those panels. Meanwhile, an RTX 4070 could carry you to reliable frame rates at higher resolutions. It can also make use of high refresh rates and low resolutions.
Then there's the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs, which elevate both aspects to their extremes. If you want to game in 4K at Ultra settings at high fps, these are the GPUs you need.
Gaming laptop vs. desktop
I wrote a whole article about the gaming laptop vs. gaming PC debate, which will give you a more in-depth explanation. However, in brief, it entirely depends on your circumstances.
Gaming desktops are cheaper and more powerful, while gaming laptops are more portable and offer everything you need in one clean package.
I prefer a gaming desktop experience, but that's because I have a dedicated desk and I am not traveling anywhere. However, it is nice to cuddle up in my bed with a gaming laptop at two in the morning.
How we test gaming laptops
When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, we aim to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use industry-standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.
To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. We use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses to judge pure processing power, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5/6 synthetic test.
We ramp up our 3DMark testing to also include Fire Strike Ultra and Time Spy Extreme, which determine how well the laptop copes with DX11 and DX12 4K graphics workloads. If the laptop is equipped with a graphics card that supports DirectX ray-tracing, we also use the 2560 x 1440 Port Royal test. (We don’t bother with Night Raid here—who cares about integrated graphics on a gaming laptop?) For the best-equipped laptops on the market, we may also run Speed Way, which plies the deepest and most demanding features of DX12 Ultimate.
We run all of gaming benchmarks in full-screen mode with vertical sync disabled, always at least at 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution, as well as the laptop's native resolution. Games include: Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and more.
When we're testing gaming laptops with the same GPU, sometimes there are only a handful of frames that decide a victory. Now, we're not saying you should pick your gaming laptop based on a couple of fps. However, there are some gaming laptops with the same GPU that perform much worse than others, so be sure to see our testing.
We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing laptops for over two decades. We test over 150 different models per year, subjecting each system to a series of rigorous benchmarks that provides a complete picture of performance, battery life and usability.
Our expert reviewers also use each product to see how it looks and feels in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it stacks up to the average laptop in its price band.
